As Iye slept and the giant charcoal-turtle kept racing past zone after zone.
From the starting point. Am had dragged Famu and Tiju inside the cavern.
"Why?"
Famu, barely remaining conscious, asked Am.
"That is a pointless question, go rest"
Am said this, but he also had no idea.
Was it because he wanted to repay the kindness she showed by saving them?
"You said it yourself, that woman had no other thoughts other than killing us or making use of us"
It didn't seem like it.
"...You added the last part"
Famu chuckled as he held his stomach in pain.
"But deep down, you thought about it, right?"
Am didn't answer. He only let his thoughts flow in a steady and calm river.
"That monster would do anything to achieve her goal, even beg on the floor after saying she'd slaughter everyone without a second thought"
Am, Famu and Up, who was now their deceased brother, met countless people just like that during their crusade.
They came across this so often that 'detecting' them became second nature to them.
"Just shut up and rest, I don't have the energy to quarrel"
"...."
Famu stopped at his brother's words, drifting into a deep and sweet slumber that winked a welcome when he closed his heavy eyelids.
The silence, hollowed as droplets of water fell from the high ceiling, slapping against the rock.
*
*
"Hmm"
At the shrine of Natura, a priest walked leisurely around. Robes of white cloth glittered when the sun shone on it.
Surprisingly, their appearance was identical to a human's, not a single detail differed from one.
"I was told to wait here.....but it seems they are dead"
Zenox had specifically tasked the priest to wait for precisely three days.
Three days had not yet passed, but the priest already harbored thoughts that maybe, just maybe. The teacher who committed treason against Gardenia died trying to resurrect a student.
"Well it isn't like the problem gets fixed~"
Resurrection sounded grand, but in this context, resurrecting a student and forcing them to go back to Gardenia, their reason for dying in the first place, seemed torture in some perspective.
"Still, who was the teacher that caused a student's death?"
Who would even allow this to happen? This was what puzzled him, what kind of teacher would allow this to occur? There were a few that did do it, but those people were just psychopaths.
"Guess I should go get a cup of tea"
Leaving the area where the 'Pirka', the charcoal colored turtle would stop at, he went and brewed a simple poisonous tea.
"Delicious~"
Sipping it, the intoxicating feeling of his throat tightening up and the burning fever he could feel in his veins felt surreal and absolutely ethereal to him.
His cheeks flushed red at the beautiful and lustful scent of poison tickling his twitching nose.
Lyfa kept sipping slowly and steadily at the teacup, standing close to the rails the Pirka use to get around, just in case the teacher who committed treason actually came.
Drrrrrrrrrr—!
"....?"
As he sipped slowly, the rails lulled with a grating rumbling.
It was faint, so faint in fact that Lyfa would have missed it otherwise if he had been too engrossed in sipping the tea.
'No way'
Someone was coming. That much was apparent.
Off in the distance, a spot of black raced.
At first, tiny, but as the seconds stretched.
So did the spot of black stretched. Growing wider and bigger by the second, and eventually.
The Pirka slowed to a controlled stop when it reached the end. Stopping right before the stunned priest.
Thwack!
A part of its shell burst open. Shaking its body, two figures were thrown out of the shell.
One was a tattered blood-soaked bundle of what appeared to be casual clothing.
While the other had a body made up fully of pitch black strings. The color faded and looked incredibly dull in contrast to everything that held color.
Clack!
Setting the cup clacking on the floor, Lyfa rushed to their side, carrying the both with ease.
Lyfa, seeing the supposed teacher in tatters rushed to the high priest. His master.
As Lyfa left the Pirka behind. Trudging through the flat plains with the starry and twinkling sky hanging above, he eventually reached a small hill, the extra weights made it hard to move without almost jerking behind and tumbling behind.
But he still gritted his way through. Reaching a stretching-flat mossy rock, with a woman praying in front of it. Her form astonishingly human-like too.
Her azure hair flowed with the faint breeze that whistled, her parched, cracked lips stitched closed. The white blindfold hid away her hollow eye sockets.
"Master...Huff"
She didn't turn, but realized the two familiar and unfamiliar presence at the voice.
Her lips stretched open, her voice low.
"Are they here?"
She asked, raising herself slowly up. Her long hair kept stretching and stretching towards the soles of Lyfa.
"Yes"
He answered.
"But, who exactly do we resurrect?"
At the words, the one Lyfa called master creaked their head towards him.
"....?"
She pointed a finger...towards the boy with a dull black.
"How did you know?"
She didn't answer, her bare feet moved slowly towards him.
Her deathly pale hand brushed against the black mass of swirling strings, while her other brushed against the translucent figure.
"....Iye"
At her hand, as she brushed it against transparent skin, it began to glow a bright color, then, it snapped and branched into multiple fingers.
The fingers became thin, as thin as a small branch and funnily enough. Her hand now resembled small branches you'd find from birch.
The warm glow faded, and Iye's body started to react.
She wasn't healed, just forcibly woken up.
".....L-Laya?"
Laya's cracked lips stretched into a small smile.
"Yes, it is me, Iye"
Pushing Lyfa away, Iye found her balance and could see Laya in front. Her gaze however, was on the boy Lyfa held.
"Is this the student?"
Laya asked, in a soft, yet brittle voice that felt like it could snap at the slightest force put.
"It is..."
Still having a somewhat cloudy vision, Iye struggled to find a perfect balance.
"We shouldn't drag it then, it appears to me that in 15 minutes, he is going to disappear"
Pointing at Cale, Lyfa immediately moved and laid Cale on the flat surface of the mossy rock.
"Stay still now my friend"
Laya walked and touched Iye's chest, where her heart was.
"Now, this may hurt or it may also not"
Iye narrowed her eyes.
'Which one is it then?'
Preparing for whatever Laya might do.
She braced for the pain that might befall on her. Shutting her eyes tightly.
"Done~"
"...?"
Her eyes snapped open at the words.
'Already?'
She didn't even feel anything.
"Ah"
Lingering her gaze down, she saw a thin thread, a cyan shard shimmered in Laya's pale fingers.
"Since I now have the shard, I will immediately proceed with the resurrection, that is fine right?"
Iye could only nod.
Her fatigue was still large, what Laya did to her was only shock her awake for a few minutes.
She would still collapse in give or take 3 minutes.
"Oh, by the way"
Laya stared back.
"This one"
As she waved the shard, a grin could be faintly seen on her ghostly face.
"Will hurt like stepping on Lego bricks"
After extracting the ego shard that Iye had within her soul.
She walked towards the corpse of the dead Cale.
When her hand that held the shard brushed past Cale's 'skin', the shard hummed and melted, bonding itself into Cale's soul and digging deeper and deeper into his shattered mind.
The faint line that connected Iye's heart with the shard also dissipated.
"Ukh!"
Immediately, Iye fell to the ground, clutching her burning chest in pain.
"What is going on, master?"
Seeing Iye in such sudden pain. Lyfa felt a bead of sweat trickle down his temple as he asked.
"Ah, right. This is your first time seeing this"
She twirled away. Cleared her throat and spoke.
"Natura is our merciful Goddess that has granted life"
She clasped her hands together.
"Yet death would eventually take away her gift"
Her head sagged downwards to the dead insects squirming.
"But she, our most beautiful Goddess would even trick death to grant us even a day in our lives"
Tears streamed down from her hollow sockets.
Casting her gaze to Cale, she spoke.
"'Cale Dice', that man is dead, however"
Her voice turned melancholic.
"By altering the soul, we create a new 'unique' being that defies their previously blank history"
That was the reason, the 'Ego Shard' was important in the process.
The shard was a 'piece' of one's soul.
Their personality, and their nature.
"...?"
Laya looked at her confused disciple and knit a smirk.
"With this, a loophole is created, allowing us to bring someone back to life"
"After all"
Her smirk died down.
"'Cale Dice' is dead, but is 'Cale Idiyele' also dead?"